Pregnant Dreams

Several days ago i had a dream that my youngest daughter was pregnant (before she was married) and that she wasn't "showing" yet.  It was an odd dream, because she was engaged to be married in just a few weeks.  As I shared this with Jennifer, she was able to grasp the imagry of pregnancy with expentency and hope...hope for change, hope for a fruitful future and a turnaround in our fortunes in ministry.  

It seems like our ministry since our mission trip in 2012 suffered a serious setback.  I equate it to the damage done to my raspberry plants this winter.  They were frozen so far back that we lost several years of growth and productivity and consequently, fruit. That is what happened as a result of the disruptive exodus of a handful of key members of our church who took offense at something that didn't exist.  The devil is like a cold front that robs, steals, kills and destroys.  And we have suffered some diffiiculties as a result.  The hardest part has been getting my eyes off of the problem and back onto The Lord.  After nearly 2 years, we are seeing momentum shifting and our ministry growing again.  

Back to the dream:  Today, I was reading in a book about hope written by Dutch Sheets.  In it he was talkiing about the blessing that the French give to a pregnant woman:  "I congratulate you on your hope."  Even though we are in the "first trimester" of our pregnancy of hope, we do not yet see the results or the fruit but we have the hope that is ours in Christ.  We do know that God's word is planted deep in us and that we will see delivery of change.  

Today, I felt like God gave me insight into new plans for our church this fall.  All beginning with the construction of our new stage (place of praise) that begins on the 13th of July.  We will be revamping our praise and worship, focusing and implementing younger music to fulfill our mission statement of "reaching the next generation."  No more just talking about it.  It is time for action.  The next things include:  Small discipleship groups to start this fall in homes.  Membership changing to Partnership.  We need our next wave of new people to be partners and not just members/attenders.  Partners own ministry, they own the program, they belong.  God has brought our church numerous Pre-believers recently, and we must engage them one family at a time, integrating them and leading them to an encounter with Christ.  And finally, raising up new leaders.  Beginning July 12th, I am meeting with the men who are under 40 years of age once a month to call them into Godliy living and to raise them up as future Oaks of Righteousness.